Smoke and Shadow: An Epic Fantasy Progression Series (The Dragon Thief Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “He didn’t have any relics on him,” he said.

  “He did not. And what was stranger still was that he was calling upon some great power and causing the steam to erupt.”

  “Why?”

  Albion shrugged. “I wish I knew. When he realized I was following him, he started moving more quickly than I could track. I tried to stay with him, but unfortunately he evaded me, and what was more he threw power at me, forcing me back.”

  “What made you decide to go after him then?”

  “I decided to go after him because I needed to understand that power. I was still young in my connection to the Flame, early in my following of the priesthood, and I believed that if there was somebody who had access to the Flame directly, if I could learn how to do that, I could better serve it. Perhaps I could manifest such a connection.”

  Ty doubted that any of this was why his brother had come to him at the tavern. At the same time, hearing him share his story of what had changed for him left Ty thinking that maybe he could better understand what he was doing, what he had been doing, and how he had gotten caught up in everything that he had.

  “What did you see?”

  “He disappeared,” Albion said. “I went months worrying, contemplating that power. I prayed on it, trying to reach the power of the Flame myself, convinced that if there was some way to do so, I could. I had grown up so near Ishantil, after all, so why shouldn’t I be the one to do it?” He shook his fingers, as if trying to wave off some pain within them. “And then I began to look into the Flame. I threw myself in my studies, devouring as much information as I could about the Flame, spending time mastering the old texts, translating them myself, and I began to see a trend.” He leaned back, closing his eyes. “When I did, I began to realize that there was a different sort of power available, though it was something I had not expected. There were other stories. Of course, I believed they were just stories. How could I believe that they were anything else? There were tales of men and women who had touched the Flame directly and used it, but none of them were from the kingdom.”

  “No?”

  “You already knew that.”

  “I spoke to Roson James,” Ty said.

  “That’s right,” he said. “I forget you had your own encounter with him. I didn’t know him by that name. I didn’t even know that he was the same person. All I knew was that there was somebody in the kingdom. And he had that ability. I started looking for him, and then I began to find evidence of him cropping up from time to time. Stories of power, and then… residual remnants of power. Thankfully, I had risen high enough in my studies that I could move around more easily. I told you I was attuned to dragon remnants, and because of that I could feel the energy that he summoned, and I could feel the way he was calling upon it and the effect he left behind. Then I started to see other things were missing. Ancient artifacts disappeared, and it drew the attention of the priesthood, but it also drew the attention of the king.”

  “I can imagine,” he said.

  “The priesthood and the king have long had a strained relationship. It’s unfortunate, as we both serve the same goals, but over time things have evolved, changing so that for whatever reason, things are not nearly as coordinated as they should be.” He shrugged. “But with this, I started to notice that the king’s Tecal were there. Always coming late after something went missing. The king’s Tecal followed, and when they did it didn’t take long for me to realize there was something ancient missing.”

  Ty closed his eyes. He was still weak and tired and having felt everything that he’d gone through, he wasn’t sure that this was the right time to be having a conversation with his brother, but at the same time he also didn’t know if he would get another chance.

  Given everything they had gone through, there had been no chance for Ty to learn anything more, despite his wanting to. He had to stay. He had to focus. He had to listen.

  “How does this have to do with the Dragon Thief?”

  “It has everything to do with the Dragon Thief. When we realized things were missing, I reached out. There was a young Tecal I had seen in several of the cities, and she had been following the disappearances.”

  “Gayal,” he said.

  Albion nodded.

  Ty frowned. “So she’s known all along.”

  “She’s been a part of the planning from the very beginning. It was partly her idea that we try to draw out this person, mostly by staying ahead of them. If it was tied to ancient relics, then we needed to uncover them, and we needed to have this Dragon Thief get to them before this other person could.”

  “How do you know that it wasn’t Gayal?”

  “I thought the same at first. I didn’t know whether or not I could trust her, as she was the king’s Tecal, but I also recognized there was a desire in her. She wanted to know.”

  Ty understood Gayal a little bit better. She had faith, and whether that faith was in the Flame or whether it was something else, he didn’t know, but it didn’t fully matter. She had an interest in protecting some of the ancient history.

  “So you created the Dragon Thief.”

  “We did. And we wanted to see if we could draw this out. Ideally, we would have them attack me, but…”

  “But they never did,” Ty said.

  “No,” he whispered.

  “How did you uncover the dauvern?”

  “That was in one of the ancient texts. I found something that referenced a time from ages ago, a time when the dragons responded to those with the connection to the Flame. Much like many things within the ancient texts, some of the priests believed it was little more than a fairy tale, a fable meant to describe the connection to the Flame, but there were those who began to question whether there was something more.”

  “You mean you.”

  Albion nodded slowly. “I meant me. I came to realize I needed access to some of that ancient information, and soon I began to realize I wouldn’t find the answers I needed in the priesthood. I needed to go elsewhere.”

  “But you didn’t have to leave the priesthood.”

  “Not to find what I wanted, but I had to have access to more. Unfortunately, the king and the priesthood don’t always align in their views. But the king has access to ancient relics and books that the priesthood does not. I needed to bring those together, bridging them so that I could find another answer. But I also was hoping to rebuild the connection so that perhaps the king could find his own understanding of the Flame.”

  “And that’s what brought you to search for the dauvern?”

  “Between the two, I found information that led me to the dauvern. That allowed me to keep searching and started me down a different journey.”

  “To understand the dragons.”

  “The dragons, everything that they are connected to, everything they represent. I thought that if I could find more, if I could somehow connect to them, that I might be able to draw out this other.”

  “You would become the true Dragon Thief.” It meant that he intended to use the dauvern to draw out the dragons and to use that to connect to the Flame directly. “All of this was your attempt to try to reveal this person.”

  “All of this was to understand the Flame,” Albion said.

  “And now? What about the dauvern?”

  “The dauvern was my way of trying to understand how the connection to the Flame is made in a different way than what I was taught, but if I can find the Manifestation I can find something more. I can find a direct connection to the Flame. That is more important than anything else.”

  Ty stared at his brother. All this time, after learning all he had about him, he had expected to be impressed by him. He had expected to be impressed by everything Albion knew and everything that he had become. And there was a part of Ty that was.

  “Did you actually pull the jobs, or was at all a lie?”

  “I had to be the Dragon Thief. It could not be an act. Otherwise they would’ve known.”

  So Albion actually h
ad done the impossible jobs, actually pulled off the type of things that Ty had once believed were not only improbable but impossible.

  Albion took a deep breath. “I have to find the dauvern.”

  “Why? I told you it doesn’t matter anymore. There’s nothing within the dauvern that will make a difference with what we’re doing.”

  “The dauvern makes all the difference,” he said. “Don’t you see that? Roson wanted it because it is something for the dragons.” Ty shook his head.

  “He wants some way to control the dragons. And he learned something when he was after me.” Ty hadn’t been sure how much he needed to tell Albion, but he worried that he needed to reveal some truth.

  If he didn’t, then what would happen?

  “The egg hatched,” Ty said.

  Albion frowned. “It did?”

  “But it was different. Not like the dragons the king has.”

  This was his brother. He needed his help.

  “There was a dragon that seemed to be made of smoke. I don’t exactly know how, what it means, or anything about it, only that it hatched from your egg. And now it has supposedly connected to me in some way. I don’t know what that means, either, but I’m trying to understand it. And I worry what will happen if I don’t. Especially now that they stole the dauvern from me.”

  “Oh, Ty,” Albion whispered.

  “You don’t have to say that. I know that you don’t really care.”

  “I care more than you know.”

  “Then you can help me get it back. You are the one who is trained for it. You can do this. The Dragon Thief can do this.”

  Albion got to his feet, looking around the inside of the room. It was dark other than the lantern, which didn’t reveal much in the depths of the darkness, but here was where he had begun to think that his brother was something more, and perhaps he was. He was a Priest of the Flame, and he’d been searching for meaning and an understanding of the power that connected him to the rest of the world, but at the same time he was not so different than any other priest. He had just gone about his search for power in a very different way.

  “I think it’s time that I get back,” Ty said.

  “I could walk you back.”

  Frustration surged through Ty, and he tried to move, but pain still lingered within him. “That’s unnecessary. Now that I don’t have the dauvern, there’s no reason for the Order—or false Order—to attack me.”

  He had nothing they wanted. As far as he knew, they didn’t even know about the smoke dragon. He wasn’t going to tell his brother that, though. Albion might not understand.

  All this time, all this work he had put in, everything to try to understand him, and he was only trying to chase his beliefs.

  Now he had to go after the dauvern himself. He had to protect his dragon. If he didn’t, then not only would he be in danger, but perhaps all of the Tecal would be as well. As he headed to the door, he paused, turning back to his brother. “Did you ever try to get help for our parents?”

  “I have been trying to find information about our parents since they disappeared. Mother went to Thery and father went after her. I have not found anything beyond that.”

  That was more than what Ty had found.

  And all this time Albion had known?

  “Why didn’t you let me know?”

  “There wasn’t anything for you to know,” Albion said. “You know that mother chased the dragon relics because she believed…” He looked up, holding Ty’s gaze for a moment. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter what she believed. She traced them nonetheless.”

  “It matters,” Ty said.

  “Mother felt a connection to dragons, Ty. That’s why we lived near Ishantil. I wish that she would’ve been able to share with you her reason for it. But…” He cocked a brow, regarding Ty for a moment. “Unfortunately, she is not here.”

  As he often did around Albion these days, Ty had a distinct sense his brother knew something more and was keeping something from him.

  It frustrated him.

  “If you know something about her… or them… I feel like I deserve to know it.”

  His brother looked up, holding his gaze on Ty for a moment. “I wish that there was something I could tell you that would make it better.”

  “There is something that you can tell me. You could tell me the truth.”

  “You lost the dauvern. There is no truth that matters any longer.”

  Albion turned his attention back to what he was working on, and Ty realize that his brother was sending him away.

  All of that and he would still not learn what he wanted?

  Ty wanted to yell at his brother; he wanted to shout and demand that his brother share with him what he knew. He wanted to tell him that he deserved more than what Albion had given him, but he wasn’t sure that it even mattered. His brother wasn’t going to say anything.

  He stepped out, closing the door behind him, and couldn’t help but feel as if he were shutting the door on some part of his past.

  And he couldn’t help but question if another door would open.

  Chapter Ten

  The clearing in front of Ty was dark, the air calm and still, and the formation of rocks that surrounded him was unusual enough that he had little difficulty identifying the dragon element within it. All of this was a display of Dorian’s control, and all of this was beyond his ability to try to replicate.

  Ty continued to try to reach for the smoke dragon, and other than what he’d felt the night before that had healed him there had been no other stirring of power within. It was as if the dragon had abandoned him altogether, choosing to have nothing more to do with him.

  He wanted to coax the dragon out, wanting to convince the dragon to work with him, but unfortunately it seemed as if the dragon was unwilling to do so.

  “I can’t get it to work,” Ty said. Irritation filled him, almost as much with himself as with the dragon. Why would he not respond? He knew that he needed his help, but for whatever reason he refused to work with Ty.

  He focused on the power within him, trying to find a way to reach for it, but even as Ty probed, trying to find some way to capture his energy, there was nothing within him to call upon.

  Maybe there wasn’t going to be any way to reach it.

  Dorian stood across from him, the tendrils of shadow coming off him and mixing with a bit of the bright light, the mingling of the two dragons the same as what he used each time that he drew on his power. Ty struggled with that, trying to understand how he held onto that power, trying to master the energy that he used.

  “I can’t do it,” he said.

  Dorian stretched his hand out, and as before there came a fluttering of energy coming off him, but it filled Ty, giving a sense that Dorian was calling to the dragon, summoning that power from him. It wouldn’t take long before he managed to pull it completely away.

  He could feel the smoke dragon struggling against Dorian, trying to fight the way that he was pulling on it, but the call was too much. Each time that he felt that tug, he couldn’t help but question whether it was a test that Dorian tried on him, straining for some way to help him foster a better connection to the dragon.

  “Enough,” Ty said.

  When he spoke, something shifted.

  He felt a stirring of power deep within his belly, some heat and energy that built up, flowing there for just a moment, lasting long enough for him to feel the way that it surged. He could grasp that power, and he held onto it. Ty tried to call it to him again, but even as he did, he couldn’t tell if there was anything more that he was doing. All he could tell was that something had reacted.

  “Very good,” Dorian said.

  “What was it?”

  “You called to him.”

  He could still feel that fluttering deep within his belly, the heat and gnawing sort of energy that was there. He looked down, and there was a bit of smoke swirling around his midsection, and though it didn’t go anywhere else, he felt as if t
here was a bit of a connection to Ty now that wasn’t there before.

  “The next step is to call upon command,” he said.

  “Considering I don’t know exactly what I did, I don’t know if I could even do that.”

  “You can keep trying,” Dorian said.

  “I am trying.”

  “I would encourage you to keep trying.”

  He focused on the energy, the smoke coming out of him, the power he could feel. But even as he did, there wasn’t anything within it that he could access. It was almost as if that smoke left him trembling with power but nothing more.

  He closed his eyes, focusing on the heat and burning within his belly. “Just help me out a little bit,” he said to the smoke dragon.

  For a moment, it seemed as if the dragon responded, creating a swirling of power, and it flowed out into the injury that he’d sustained the night before, and then down into his feet, then up to his body, out into his chest, and then his arms.

  Finally, the dragon retreated, drawing back into his midsection.

  It didn’t work.

  He had tried to call upon that power, trying to summon it, but there had been nothing to it. He squeezed his hands together, forming a tight fist, and tried again. There had to be some way to reach it and to find a way to connect to the dragon. The power was there within Ty. It was just a matter of accessing it, but somehow it fought him.

  That was the key, he thought. The fight was part of the struggle, part of the challenge, and if he could find a way to overpower that fight, maybe…

  Or did it have to be a fight?

  When he dealt with the dragon, he didn’t have the feeling that it wanted to fight with him. He had a feeling that it was there within him, and though it was present there was something about it that was willing to work with him. It had healed him, after all, and had protected him when he had needed it before.